Philip Maddocks: Historians to ring bells, fire warning shots in an effort to forewarn history

Friday

Jun 24, 2011 at 12:01 AMJun 24, 2011 at 3:04 AM

U.S. historians are weighing a plan to ride horses through U.S. towns while ringing bells and firing warning shots in an effort, they say, to forewarn history of an impending attack from presidential candidates and to prepare to defend itself.

Philip Maddocks

U.S. historians are weighing a plan to ride horses through U.S. towns while ringing bells and firing warning shots in an effort, they say, to forewarn history of an impending attack from presidential candidates and to prepare to defend itself.

In a statement on their website, americanhistoryextreem.edu, the historians described their possible expedition — dubbed the “Oneth By Horse Tour” — as a way of getting back to the fundamentals of fact and accuracy that had once made history believable and more powerful than even Wikipedia.

“Our discipline is at a critical turning point,” the historians wrote. “As we look to the future, we are propelled by the longing of a past when our history and our historians did not suffer fools — nor did they have to. It’s imperative that we start getting history right again before those running for political office force us to rewrite it.”

The historians’ website said the Oneth By tour would be a way to “celebrate a past that actually had meaning” and said the plan would involve staging “pro-history” events designed to touch on the “survival of American annals” and offering seminars on how to research historical occurrences without relying solely on the Web or the statements of presidential candidates.

The trip plan has clearly been in the works for some time. Pictures on the americanhistoryextreem website show the historians astride dark saddles emblazoned with the logo “Oneth By,” with a lantern as the “n” in “Oneth.”

It also shows an enlarged copy of Alexis de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America” with the words “We the Historians” on the side and the words “Join the Fundamental Restoration of History” on the back.

As the historians muse openly about exploring a historical horse trip across the nation, they have been drawing booming applause at faculty gatherings for not only assailing the mangling of historical fact but for lecturing some members of their discipline on the importance of sticking to scholarly principles.

“It saddens me, sometimes, when my fellow historians duck and cover in the face of pressure from the misinformed,” one historian told a crowd in the dining hall at Trinity College. “We need to redouble our efforts to elect more historically-informed politicians.”

In an appearance at the Historians Leadership Conference at the Old North Church in Boston, which served as something of a debut for the Oneth By Horse Tour plan, hundreds of supporters chanted, “Ride, historians, ride!” Smiling, waving and basking in the enthusiasm, the historians did not say whether they would answer the call to journey across the nation in defense of history.

The historians have long maintained that they have no interest in constantly fact-checking public statements of politicians. But in recent weeks, with ambitious candidates upping the ante with suspect historical references, the historians have signaled they may be reconsidering and are trying to determine if there is still time to piece together a credible horse tour.

They have sent their strategists to begin gauging the level of historical support that would exist for a ride so early in the presidential primary season, along with the intensity of financial support across the country for such a mission. Their decision is still likely to be a few weeks away say the historians’ advisers.

Their speech at the Historians Leadership Conference — a finale to a three-day session that featured a handful of university presidential candidates and hundreds of recognized scholars, all armed with muskets — underscored the interest that is growing around the Oneth By Horse Tour.

The historians’ scathing broadside of misstatements made about the country’s history, which they called “a mix of hubris and ignorance that is an affront to every history-loving American,” is precisely the message that many historians say is missing from the national dialogue.

The historians’ pitch, should they decide to make their ride, would be rooted in a blend of inspiration and preservation that will highlight the strong points of history, such as its ability to withstand centuries of intellectual torture and willful misrepresentation at the hands of the powerful.

But historians worried that history, even though it has its own channel, no longer had clout with leaders in politics and finance, and that maybe now is the time to take up arms, and bells, and horses in its defense.

“Or maybe,” said one historian, “we’ll just move to Canada, like Paul Revere did.”

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